King Solomon is the theme of the first reading leading up to Ash Wednesday this year. His reputation in the Bible is that he is the great wisdom figure … but he did many stupid things. Everyone is a mixed bag. The story of the visit of the Queen of Sheba is pretty straightforward in the Biblical account. However, many legends grew out of this encounter in Jewish, Christian, Moslem, Coptic, and Ethiopean traditions. For example Haile Selassie claimed to the the descendant of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. All of which says that the fascination with “celebrity” is not merely a modern phenomenon. Our own lives will stay better grounded if we stick with the here and now and not speculate about the elite.
